Have you ever asked the question: Is God unfair? If you have, then you know the answer is, “yes, God is unfair.” But sometimes we use the notion of unfairness by God to deem Him as unjust or ungodly and that’s a mistake.
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” (Romans 9:14-15 ESV)
The Apostle Paul makes it abundantly clear to the first century believers in Rome that being unfair is vastly different than being unjust. The reason for God’s perceived unfairness ultimately comes down to the perspective we hold towards God’s justice. This means that we equate unfairness with unjustness by God because we don’t understand why God is doing what He is doing. Much like we seldom understand how God allows evil men and women massacre innocent people or allow natural disasters; we will seldom understand how those events move people of His calling to salvation in Jesus.
The example to help us understand comes from many of our upbringings and dealings with unfair justice from our parents. Our parents punished us, pushed us, and held us accountable for things that just seemed so unfair as a child growing up. But when you look back our perceived unfairness, we find that it was justified for our benefit. Being unfair not the same as being unjust. I say this caveating the fact that for the most part, our parents tried to do their best with what they got and were not evil incarnate.
God is unfair. He unfairly punished his only Son, innocent from evil to death on a cross. He did this so we, who are evil beyond our imaginations because of the perversion of our minds and senses, can be justified and made right with our maker. Think about that the next time you forget that God’s unfairness will bring justice.
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